Other Views: Obama's nominations will test Reid's ability to lead

President Barack Obama challenged Republicans in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday when he nominated three judges to fill vacancies on the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., often called the second most important court in the U.S. after the Supreme Court.

He could just as easily have issued the challenge directly to his right-hand man in the Senate, Nevada's Harry Reid, however. That's because the Democrat Reid, the Senate majority leader, will have to work some political magic in the Senate to win approval of the judges or make Republicans pay a high price for their obstructionism.

It won't be easy. Republican senators over the past five years have demonstrated a willingness to do whatever it takes to keep the president from enjoying what have long been considered the fruits of victory. And Reid, who has shown a reluctance to take any action that might hurt the institution that has been an important part of his life for more than 25 years, may be headed for a showdown over the nominations.

If this isn't the time for the "nuclear option," changing Senate rules to allow the majority of the Senate, instead of a super-majority, to give its consent to presidential nominees, there will never be a time.

Sen. Reid already suffered a bitter defeat this year over a judicial nominee. Clark County District Judge Elissa Cadish withdrew her nomination to the federal district court after Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., prevented a Senate vote for more than a year because he disagreed with her answer to a question about gun rights on a questionnaire five years earlier. Reid has expressed disappointment with the treatment of Cadish and insisted she would have been an excellent federal judge.

Now, Republicans are trying to prevent Obama from naming any more judges to the D.C. circuit court. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has proposed eliminating the three unfilled seats and accused the president of trying to "pack" the court, a reference to, and distortion of, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's attempt to add seats on the Supreme Court so he could fill them with supporters of his programs. Filling vacancies, on the other hand, is the president's job.

The Republicans' refusal to even allow a vote on Obama's judicial nominations is part of a larger pattern, of course. As we have seen, the refusal of the Senate to consider the president's nomination to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for more than six years has had a major impact on the management of the agency. The conservatives' favorite whipping boy, the IRS, also has been without a permanent director for more than two years. Republicans submitted 1,100 questions to the nominee to head the EPA and then complained that her answers were insufficient.

Now, Reid faces what may be the ultimate test of his leadership, pushing back against a recalcitrant minority. He's avoided using the "nuclear option" so far. It may well be time to break it out of the arsenal, however.

- Reno Gazette-Journal, Nevada, June 5, 2013

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Email this article

Other Views: Obama's nominations will test Reid's ability to lead

President Barack Obama challenged Republicans in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday when he nominated three judges to fill vacancies on the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., often called the second